Author: Max Milella

In case you didn’t know it, the 22nd of April is Earth Day, the day we celebrate Mother Nature and apologise for all the nasty things we’ve done to her. Apple is celebrating in its own way, throwing the spotlight on nature-focused content on several of its platforms for the day. Green Apple Over on Apple Music, you’ll see “earth-inspired” music take centre stage in the form of a “Sounds of Nature” and “Mixtape for Mother Earth” playlist, as well as a “special editorial space” called “Restore Our Earth Through Music”, which is advertised as a soundscape that takes you…

Instagram is working to get abuse and hate speech off of its platform using sterner moderation practices and strict penalties for misconduct, making the online platform safer for all users. The social media giant has announced a new tool in pursuit of that effort that blocks abusive messages from your DMs. Instagram explains that since DMs are private, it can’t root around them itself looking for harmful content. So, this new tool is effectively a filter that blocks message requests containing, “containing offensive words, phrases and emojis.” Words with Instagram The reason the tool applies to message requests and not…

If you’ve been online recently you probably know this already: audio-based social media platforms in the style of Clubhouse are all the rage at the moment, with every other social media network looking to get in on the action with their own versions of the platform. Reddit is the latest big name to announce a copy. Reddit wants to Talk This Clubhouse duplicate is called “Reddit Talk”, and it’s currently in a trial phase wherein only community moderators can host talks. It’s effectively another audio-based feature but Reddit-flavoured. The feature lets you voice-chat with members of your community. Hosts can…

Parler, the “free speech” social media platform the USA’s far-right uses to voice their controversial opinions on, has been making headlines for a while now. In the wake of the raid on the US Capitol building in January, Parler was pulled out of several app stores and was even suspended off of Amazon’s web hosting service, effectively taking it offline. The platform managed to find its way online again in February, via a new web hosting platform, and has now been brought back to Apple’s App store. Come into my Parler https://twitter.com/RepKenBuck/status/1384159186209054721?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1384159186209054721%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthenextweb.com%2Fnews%2Fapple-is-letting-parler-back-onto-the-app-store-social-media-app Apple, like others, banned the platform for its…

“We all need a bit of escapism sometimes, and there’s nothing like a blast from the pop-culture past to do the trick,” says Google, and we’d be inclined to agree, particularly under the current circumstances. To help you escape the daily drudge a little more easily, Google’s been coming up with some cool AR toys, and has now added a handful of famous characters from Japanese games, shows and anime to its AR search function. Google gets geeky The feature is pretty simple to use, and works on both iOS (running iOS 11.0 or higher) and Android devices (so long…

Microsoft is currently testing out a performance mode feature on its Edge browser, which is apparently supposed to ease off the pressure on your CPU, battery, and RAM. The feature is currently being tested with a handful of users on the Canary version of the browser, and other users can get it going with a flag if they want to, using a code found here. Microsoft Edge’s towards better performance Microsoft says performance mode will, “optimize speed, responsiveness, memory, CPU and battery usage,” and also mentions the important caveat that, “Performance improvements might vary depending on your individual specifications and…

Toyota’s not new to the EV game, the Prius (we know, it isn’t an EV, it’s a hybrid, but still) has been around since 1997, but it’s been a while since they’ve come out with anything new in the field. That changed at the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, where the carmaker unveiled an SUV built on an entirely new EV platform. Toyota powers up EV production This compact eSUV makes use of the new e-TNGA platform, and is named the bZ4K. This marks the beginning of Toyota’s bZ line, which is set to have 7 models by 2025. These seven…

The world has changed, physically, quite a bit in the past few decades. And if you want to see the process in motion, now you can thanks to Google Earth. Its “biggest update in years” has added a detailed 3D timelapse mode utilizing a plethora of satellite photos taken of our wonderful home planet over the past 37 years. Google’s got a time machine Now, this was no simple feat. Far from it. Turning these satellite images into a 3D display took a lot of time and effort. Using a process called “pixel crunching”, Google compiled over 20 million images,…

MMOs are daunting, particularly well-established, long running ones absolutely bursting with content, like Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls Online. It can be a little overwhelming for new players when they’re looking at a base game and several massive expansions to catch up on all while new content is still being marched out. Fortunately, if you’ve been on the fence about getting in to one of the biggest names in massively multiplayer online RPGs, the newest expansion, Blackwood, might be the clincher that draws you in, because it’s got something for old and new players alike. The Elder Scrolls Online’s latest expansion (or…

Well, that’s one way to put a spin on the term “foot fungus”. Adidas has announced a new addition to its Stan Smith line of sneakers, uniquely incorporating something called “Unleather”, a leather-lookalike made out of mushrooms. Yeah, mushrooms. Unleather, an alternative material made by bio-tech company Bolt Threads, makes up the bulk of the shoes’ upper body, while the midsole is natural rubber. For Adidas, sustainability is no truffle Adidas says it’s trying to, “help end plastic waste”, claiming that this shoe is the result of its “efforts into finding innovative solutions that are created responsibly with resources that…